Means for directing the exhaust of locomotives



A UNTTED sTATns raTnnT orricn.

ROBERT HALE, OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

MEANS FOR DIRECTING THE EXHAUST OF LOCOIVIOTIVES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 17,215, dated May 5, 1857.

T0 all whom t may concern Be it known that I, ROBERT HALE, of Roxbury, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain Improvementfor Taking Off a Portion of t-he Exhaust-Steam of Locomotives for the Purpose of Heating Feed-taten of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompany-V ing drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a front View, Figs. 2 and 3 details which will be referred to hereafter.

rThe fires of locomotive engines are urged and the draft sustained by causing the exhaust steam to enter the stack through a cblast pipe 7 having a contracted nozzle in a manner well known and understood. y A portion of this steam might in a great majority of cases be spared for the purpose of heating the feed water could it be separated and drawn oif without interrupting the current of the rest of the steam or diminishing the force with which it enters the smoke stack. Efforts have been made to accomplish this end by exhausting the steam from the cylinders into a box from which the passage of the steam is regulated. by a valve, allowing al portion of it to pass through a pipe to heat the feed water, and the balance to expand into the smoke stack for purposes of draft. For such a plan Letters Patent were granted to Mann and Thing on the 10th March 1838, but the plan is deemed to be imperfect owing to the fact that the momentum of the steam is so far overcome by its entry into the box that the force with which it again expands therefrom into the stack is insufficientto generate the necessary draft.

By my present improvement I am enabled to lead off a portion of the exhaust steam for the purpose of heating the feed water without in the least diminishing the momentum of the balance, or lessening the force with which it enters the smoke stack.

To enable others to understand and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried it out.

In the said drawings A, is the blast pipe as it enters the stack for the purpose of producing draft; to the toprof this pipe is secured the casting B, which has .a hole through it of a diameter equal to that of the end of the blast pipe, and a projection C, with dovetail ways or ledges a. In these dove tail ledges slides a block b, attached to the bottom of the pipe D, which leads 0E the steam to heat the feed water-the bottom of this pipe or one half of it) is made sharp that it may divide the steam without interrupting the progress either of that port-ion which is dra-wn off or of the remainder which passes into the stack.

The pipe D, is operated by a lever or other suitable means within the reach ofthe engineer, who thus has it in-his power to take the whole of the exhaust steam for the draft, or to divertthe whole or any desired port-ion of it into the tank for the purpose of heating the feed water.

Where there are two blast pipes, the ap paratus may be attached to one only-of them, and where the two unite into one, it may be applied to this one in the manner already described.

It should be observed that no material alteration is required in the construction of locomotives to enable my invention to be applied to them.

That I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The within described device for the purpose of leading off a portion of the exhaust steam to heat the feed water, without interrupting or changing the direction of that portion of the exhaust not so employed-in the manner substantially as herein set forth.

ROBERT HALE.

itnesses SAM. COOPER, THos. R. ROACH. 

